*Chris Bosh's salary: Assuming the 56.1 million dollar salary cap, the max salary for Bosh that he will most likely receive is 0.30 * 56.1 million = $16.83 million

**I'd assume Lee wants something in Lamarcus Aldridge territory: $65 mil over 5 years. That'd be more than a 20% raise over his current $7 mil salary, so he'd be BYC... but I don't know how that effects SNT, especially when New York is under the cap. Assuming he does get a contract identical to Aldridge's, his salary for the first year would be $10.7 million.

So outgoing salary for the Raptors is $25.83 million. Knicks are sending out $26.27. I believe it still gives the Knicks enough salary for another max contract (perhaps JJ or Gay).

At this point we have the MLE which could be used on Amir Johnson to round out the team. Or someone else.

Trade benefits: We get two young players in Douglas/Gallinari and we are able to offload Jose's 3 years 30 million for Eddy Curry's expiring contract. This could payoff come next season's trade deadline. Also we replace one All-star with another. Of course, Lee is no Bosh - but it may actually work out better for us with Turkoglu (Lee doesn't need touches like Bosh does). Also there's no slip in rebounding.

Possible problems:

- David Lee and Andrea Bargnanni may not be the best of friends (remember the tech Lee got for mocking Bargnanni), but who knows how deep that goes.

- We took out one European (Jose), but brought in a third italian (Danilo). The possible rift between American-Euro players may increase?

- David Lee is not a good defender.

Why do the Knicks make this trade? Well, they get "one of the big three" and still have enough cap space to go after another FA, and this time they have Bosh to lure that other FA to them. They also get a formidable, although expensive, PG that should do well in a D'Antoni system given his ability to shoot the ball.

They could give Sergio Rodriguez a qualifying offer to round out their PG rotation. If my assumptions are correct and they still have room for one more max money FA, they could possibly go after Dwayne Wade and give a defensive-minded centre the minimum (Jermaine O'Neal, Shaq, Big Z?). Or put Bosh at C like Amare in Phoenix and play with a smaller PF.

If you truly think the trade makes us worse defensively, please say why.

I'm not sure how you can say getting 2 guys from a team that way almost as bad as us defensively, will not hurt us further.

Bosh might only be an average defender, but Lee is definitely below average. Pairing a below average defender with Bargnani will make our defense worse, no two ways about it.

Getting rid of Calderon might help out up top a bit, but bringing in a worse defender down low hurts us more. All PGs get beat off the dribble by other PGs its very common and getting rid of Bosh down low just means once there is penetration we're even less likely to stop it than we were before.

Why do Raptor fans continually pine for David Lee??? I simply don't understand it. This trade would not improve the Raptors, and not make them bad enough to get a high draft pick. You people seem to want to commit the Raptors on the long path of mediocrity.

Those Knicks that Raptors would get were the core of a team that won 29 GAMES!!! You're taking away two of the most effective Raptors (Bosh and Calderon), keeping the worst ones and adding players who could only win 29 games,

And I notice you don't have Johnson in there, either. So the top three effective Raptors go, and you get three guys from a 29 win team.

Why do Raptor fans continually pine for David Lee??? I simply don't understand it. This trade would not improve the Raptors, and not make them bad enough to get a high draft pick. You people seem to want to commit the Raptors on the long path of mediocrity.

Those Knicks that Raptors would get were the core of a team that won 29 GAMES!!! You're taking away two of the most effective Raptors (Bosh and Calderon), keeping the worst ones and adding players who could only win 29 games,

And I notice you don't have Johnson in there, either. So the top three effective Raptors go, and you get three guys from a 29 win team.

Ya, great trade.

Because Lee is the best piece that Raps can get if they trade with NY.
If they trade with Houston, I like Scola better than Yao.
Yao would be just too slow for their offense.

Because Lee is the best piece that Raps can get if they trade with NY.
If they trade with Houston, I like Scola better than Yao.
Yao would be just too slow for their offense.

Actually, Lee isn't the best piece the Raptors can get. Lee fits VERY badly with the Raptors and would not make them a better team. His poor defense would give the Raptors THE worst defensive frontcourt in the league. By far. This is why I simply don't understand this talk of Lee. If a rich man's Chris Bosh got the Raptors 40 wins, how is a poor man's Chris Bosh going to do anything but lead the team to a worse record?

I'd rather get Gallinari and Wilson Chandler, and not take back Lee and his long term contract. You don't have to match salaries, here. You get two young players who will only get better, with good contracts that would be very easily tradable if they needed to be, but who could also have a place on the team.

Again, Lee is a very bad fit for the Raptors, and taking him back would give the Raptors another bad defensive player with a big, long term contract.

Scola is a very good player but if it's a sign and trade for Bosh, the Raptors aren't going to be competing next season, so I'd rather get back young talent. Scola would not be a long term piece if the Raptors lose Bosh. If they want to trade Scola for Bargnani, I'd be up for that.

Personally I don't like David Lee and don't want him on my team, but I like to make trades. I mentioned Johnson in there, you must have just glanced over the lineups.

Anyway, we can't just "blow up" the team unless you have a plan to unload Hedo Turkoglu and Andrea Bargnani. From the sounds of it, neither of those players are going anywhere. If that's the case, we have 4 years of "mediocrity" with $20 million dollars tied up each season. So then you might as well put a decent product on the floor unless you want Toronto to get Seattled.